Actuators for controlling the turbine response of an exhaust turbocharger in practice exhibit a certain scattering in respect of their actuation effect and their activation signals. The fundamental causes of this lie in the component tolerances in the manufacturing process and in the severe environment in which they are deployed. Scattering causes actuator delay and activation errors in actuator modeling in the actuation distance model as part of boost pressure regulation. Specific adjustment of model parameters is not known.